Eric the Unready

Eric the Unready, a parody adventure game, was released by Legend Entertainment for MS-DOS in 1993. It mocks the fantasy genre broadly, while also poking fun at subjects like *Star Trek* and *Zork*. The story follows the title character, an inept knight, as he attempts to rescue a princess. The game also incorporates Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend. Critics received it positively.

The game uses an interactive fiction engine. A window shows a graphical view of the player’s location and perspective. Additional windows offer a point-and-click interface, including an inventory list and a menu of multiple-choice commands.

According to a prophecy, King Fudd the Bewildered will die within a week, leaving his unmarried daughter to inherit the kingdom. His legitimate daughter, Princess Lorealle the Worthy, arrives at the castle but vanishes the next day. The player soon discovers that Fudd’s wife, Queen Morgana the Black, has plotted with her lover Sir Pectoral to have her own daughter from a previous marriage stand beside the dying king and become sole heir. Lorealle has been kidnapped and held in the castle of Morgana’s witch sister, where she is to marry the evil Beast, disqualifying her from the prophecy. To ensure no capable knight rescues her, Morgana arranges for the Union Hall to select the most incompetent candidate: Eric the Unready, the player character.

Bud the Wizard (a pun on Budweiser) tells the player that to reach the castle, they must find several magical items: the Pitchfork of Damocles in the tallest tree of the Enchanted Forest; the Crescent Wrench of Armageddon inside Blicester Castle; the Raw Steak of Eternity guarded by the Stygian Dragon; the Crowbar of the Apocalypse in the mists around the Mountain of the Gods; and the Bolt Cutters of Doom owned by an enchanter in the Swamp of Perdition. Each mission is timed: Sir Pectoral pursues Eric, and if the player delays too long, the game ends. Every time Eric acquires an item, he causes a disaster—usually an explosion—that flings him to the next area the next day. The player can collect a newspaper from each area that reports Eric’s latest mishaps and other fictional news, often puns on pop culture. Eric’s final stop is the witch’s castle, where he uses the magical objects to open the gate. He then stops the princess’s wedding, destroys the Beast, and clears the castle of monsters.